Wild Springs Farm

10/22/2026

🙌🙌🙌🙌

Let’s allow our young horses to be young.

Not every 4-year-old needs to be jumping courses. Not every 5-year-old needs to be winning championships. And not every 6-year-old needs to have it all figured out.

Somewhere along the way, we started confusing potential with pressure and progress with perfection.

Young horses need time. Time to grow into their bodies, time to develop their minds, time to make mistakes, and time to understand what we’re asking of them.

They need consistency, patience, boundaries, and education. But they also need opportunities to be curious, playful, and sometimes a little immature.

Just because they CAN do something doesn’t always mean they SHOULD.

A talented young horse is exciting. I get it. But talent doesn’t replace physical maturity, mental confidence, or a solid foundation.

Our job as horsemen isn’t to see how quickly we can get them to the finish line. It’s to develop horses that are confident, sound, willing, and still love their jobs years down the road.

The goal shouldn’t be to have the best 5-year-old in the barn. The goal should be to have an incredible 15-year-old because of the decisions we made when they were five.

Slow down. Build the foundation. Protect their confidence.

Let them be young. Their future depends on it

10/20/2026

It’s not cheap. Inflation hits everywhere

As we all well know the cost of everything is through the roof Just existing will cost you a small fortune.

If you are ever wondering why farrier cost are so high and rising this small amount of product that I could carry out from the store under each arm costed $1,048 fuel for most farrier rigs is over $120 most often a day due to the amount of driving to get to everyone's farms in a day.

Forging ahead will do Its best to remain affordable but just a small reminder of what goes on behind the scenes.

10/19/2026

Derby days are so much fun! Especially when hosted by Frances Dunn.
💚Kaylee Carter and were 6th in the cross rail
🤎Addie and were 8th in the crossrail
💜Sarah and were 7th in the 18”
💛Chloe Ostendorf and were 3rd in the 2”!

Nothing but smiles all day 🩷

10/16/2026

10/15/2026

We love our Dads💙.

10/14/2026

https://www.instagram.com/p/DeYKOTZlhrb/?img_index=2&psln=MWM1dGlvMTI5b2RudQ==

10/11/2026

Put in the effort EVERY ride! Be consistent! If you aren’t asking correctly, you cannot get the right response. Your horse gets frustrated and confused… creating problems that never existed.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DeUyQBZgZ31/?img_index=4&vrfl=MW92ZmQ3bGI1eXA2ag==

10/11/2026

Our horses are not machines. Sometimes we have to consider their perspective. Put yourself in their “hooves”.

This is a welfare conversation.
That’s why it’s happening on my page.

Im seeing this come up again in other channels that are not handling it with any kindness or empathy and that’s not a welfare discussion, sometimes that’s just bullying. So we are going to have the conversation here.

This isn’t about male vs female. This isn’t about shaming bodies.

This is about load.

There is a welfare limit when it comes to what a horse can comfortably and safely carry, and pretending that limit doesn’t exist doesn’t help anyone, especially not the horse.

If I could bold this line I would:

Horses don’t owe us riding.

And I think that’s where a lot of this gets blurred.

A number that gets thrown around a lot is the “20% rule”. That a horse can carry 20% of their body weight.

But what often gets left out is that this guideline is based on a fit, conditioned horse, with appropriate muscling, soundness, and management.

Not a deconditioned horse.
Not a young horse.
Not a horse coming back into work.
Not a horse with any limitations.

And it also includes EVERYTHING.
Rider, saddle, tack.

So even that number isn’t a “free pass”. It’s a BEST case scenario.

I say this as someone who was almost 100 lbs heavier and chose to stop riding at my heaviest.

This isn’t coming from judgment. It’s coming from experience and from having to look at things honestly.

There’s also this belief that if someone wants to ride, they should be able to. But horses aren’t equipment. They’re living beings with physical limits.

And those limits don’t change based on how much we want something.

I understand that horses can be incredibly important for people, including for therapeutic reasons.

But that does NOT have to involve riding.

Connection, groundwork, relationship building, time spent with them. Those things can be just as therapeutic as riding, bring around horses in itself is therapeutic.

This needs to be a conversation about welfare as a whole, not a targeted one about individuals.

Not an excuse to shame people.
Not something to turn into bullying.

But also not something we get to ignore because it’s uncomfortable.

10/06/2026